An Introduction to Cornish Place Names

. * AN INTRODUCTION TO CORNISH PLACE NAMES \ BY P. A. S. POOL, M.A., F.S.A. Second (revised) edition 1971 Obtainable from: ' The Author at 37 Morrab Road, Penzance, Cornwall Price 6p V ‘V CORNISH PLACE NAMES P. A. s. POOL C.ORNISH is a Celtic language, closely akin to Welsh and Breton, which remained the ordinary spoken language of most Cornish people until about 1500 and of a steadily decreasing minority until the late 18th century, its last survival being confined to small areas of the Penwith and Lizard peninsulas in the far west of Cornwall. Dolly Pentreath of Mousehole, who died in 1777, was not, as is commonly believed, the last to speak Cornish, but was certainly one of the last native speakers, and by 1800 at the very latest Cornish had finally died out as a spoken language, its revival as such being then more than a century in the future and totally unforeseen. It never- theless survived in traditionally remembered sayings and phrases, in hundreds of dialect words, but principally in thousands of names of places. Not only every village and farm, but also every field and prominent natural feature had its own name, and in the far west where the language survived the longest these names are nearly all Cornish, the few English ones being mostly modern. Generally, the further east in Cornwall one goes, the earlier Cornish gave‘ place to English and the smaller is the proportion of Cornish names, until in Tamar-side parishes they are a small minority. In the east, Cornish names often contain certain words as they were spelt at an earlier stage in the development of the language than those in the west, re- fiecting the earlier date at which use of the language ceased; thus nans, valley, is almost invariably found in names as nance in the west and mmt (the earlier form) in the east. The names of farms and villages often describe the locality as it was when settlement first took place, or refer to some natural or man- made feature nearby, or include the personal name of an early saint or settler. The study of these names is at once one of the most inter- esting and most difiicult branches of Cornish knowledge, and in a short booklet one can only outline the type of problem encountered and discuss some of the more important words found in Cornish names. Only seldom can names be translated with absolute certainty; generally they can only be interpreted with a greater or less degree of probability. The prime rule is to attempt no interpretation until all available forms of the name have been studied, and to place greater reliance on the earlier forms. Many farm names date from the 12th and 13th centuries, some being found in the Domesday Book of 1086, and the early forms of the names, used when their meanings were fully understood by the Cornish-speaking population, are of crucial importance in interpreting them today. Once the names ceased to have any real meaning to those who used them, becoming “just names", the spelling became subject to much variation and corruption, making the later forms often dangerously misleading if studied in isolation. __ _ _-- Thus Polmennor in Madron might seem to mean “pool by a boundary stone”, pol men or, but in fact it is a late corruption of Penmeneth, “top of a hill”, pen meneth, the name of this farm from the 15th to the 19th centuries. Similarly, the name Lanyon in the same parish might seem to contain the word lan, a religious enclosure, but in fact 13th century forms of the name such as Lenien and Linyeine show almost certainly that it is lyn yeyn, cold pool. The Lanyon family took their name from this place, and later, when a branch settled in Gwinear, they took the name and gave it to their new home, so that indirectly a pool in Madron named a place in Gwinear. Very few documents giving old forms of names were available to early writers on the subject, whose interpretations are often highly suspect and occasionally ludicrous. The modern student of place names must regard the work of all his predecessors, however eminent, with scepticism: Dr. William Borlase, Cornwall’s greatest antiquary, wrote in 1749 that “Etymology gives great latitude for imagination and conjecture”; and Dr. P. H. Reaney, a leading authority on English names, wrote in 1960 that “more nonsense has been written on place names than on any other subject”. Students of Cornish names have certainly in the past spared neither imagination nor conjecture, and have produced their full share of nonsense: thus Keverango (“hundreds”—the meeting place of four ancient territorial hundreds at Scorrier) was once interpreted as “the death of goats”, and Carn- meall Bal (l\/Iichael’s Rock Mine) as “the honey hill of the beneficial works”. To avoid other pitfalls, the student must always be prepared to lay aside his books and papers and get his feet muddy, by inspecting the actual places so as to ascertain whether the interpretation he favours is topographically appropriate. Often such considerations will decisively influence choice between two interpretations, otherwise equally probable on etymological grounds alone. Thus it is pointless to interpret the name Tywarnhayle as “house on the estuary” (ly war an hayl) when there is no estuary for miles; it is probably “house on the moor”, ty war an hal. Cornish, like the other Celtic languages, possesses “mutations”, whereby certain initial consonants are liable to change. The only mutation commonly found in place names is lenition or softening, called by linguists the “second state”, whereby B and M both change to V, C and K to G, D to DH or TH, T to D, and G either changes to W or is omitted altogether. Cornish grammar lays down fixed rules as to when mutations should take place, but in place names irregular and missed mutations commonly occur. Another complication is that intrusive consonants often occur, especially in relatively modern names; the sound D is the most common, so that pen, end, and gwyn, white, often occur in names as pedn and gwidden respectively. Also, the Cornish vowel U sometimes has the sound of EE, so that cruk, a barrow or burial mound, often occurs in names as creek or creeg, and the same sound is found in the name Priest Cove discussed later. We may now consider the various ways in which names are formed. The simplest kind is a single noun; thus Brea, Hayle and Nance are the Cornish bre (hill), hayl (estuary) and nans (valley). A noun is commonly made plural by adding -ow to the singular; thus Kerrow is the plural of ker, fort. A noun may be preceded by the definite article an, the, which mutates or softens a feminine noun (there being no neuter gender in Cornish); thus we have Angarrack, the rock, and Angrowse, the cross, the initial C of the feminine nouns carrek and crows being softened to G. Frequently a name consists of a noun and an adjective; the adjective normally follows the noun (which it precedes in English) and is softened after a feminine noun. Thus Trenoweth, Trevear and Trevean mean respectively “new farm” (noweth, new), “large farm” and “small farm”, the V of the two latter names representing softening of the M of mur (pronounced meor), large, and the B of byghan (pronounced bean), small, after the feminine noun tre, farm. The adjective hen, old, is exceptional in that it precedes the noun; thus Hendra (the commonest Cornish farm-name) means “old farm”, dra representing tre. Perhaps the most common form of name consists of two nouns, as Chypons, bridge house, Egloshayle, estuary church, Trenance, valley farm. In these names the second noun is used as an adjective, and the word order is reversed to find the English meaning, owing to the different rules of the two languages as to the order of noun and adjective; alternatively the Cornish order may be retained and the names rendered “house by a bridge”, “church by an estuary”, “farm in a valley”. When the nouns are separated by an (often shortened to n), the Cornish word order is retained and an translated as “of the”, “by the”, “on the”, “near the”, etc. Thus we have such names as Chyandour, house by the water, shy an dowr; Crowsanwra, cross of the witch, crows an wragh; Balnoon (earlier Ballanoon), mine on the down, bal an un; Plainangwarry, plain of the play, plen an gwary, the name given to the amphitheatres where Cornish miracle plays were performed and sometimes found in its English form, Playing Place; and the names given below commencing tren (for tre an). The most common word found in Cornish names is tre or tref, used in modern Cornish to mean “town”, but in names usually de- noting a town in the oldest sense, a farm. The typical west Cornish parish consists of scattered farming settlements, each a ire and about half of them so called; one near the church being often called the “Churchtown”, Treveglos or Treneglos, Often the merest hamlet. As examples of the innumerable tre names all over Cornwall may be given Trewoone, farm on a down, gun, softened; Tremellin or Trevellin, farm by a mill, melyn, softened in the latter name; Trenalls, farm on the cliff, an als; Tregoose, farm by a wood, cos, softened; Trewarveneth, farm on a hill, meneth, softened after -war, on; Tremenheere, farm by a longstone, menhyr; Tregarrick, farm by a rock, carrek, softened; Treneere, farm of the hens, an yer; Tregear, farm by a fort, ker, softened; Trerice, farm by a ford, res; Trengove, farm of the smith, an gof; Trengwainton, farm of the Spring (season), an Gzvaynten; Trendrine, farm of the thorns, an dreyn.

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